Phillis Wheatley's "On Recollection" in The Gentleman's Magazine: and Historical Chronicle. Volume XLIII. For the Year MDCCLXXIII.
London: Printed at St. John's Gate for D. Henry, 1773. [1], [2], 655. [16] pp. Illus. with 29 b/w plates and maps, 5 of which are folding. 8vo. Quarter calf over marbled board, marbled edges. First edition. A good copy with faint library stamp to the general title page, lacking rear board, detached front board, spine cover loose with large chip at head, board chipped and scuffed, one leaf with chip along fore edge, off-setting from some plates on opposite leaves, one plate creased, otherwise text block tight and pages bright and clean. St. Barre: pp.49-50; Jolly: Gent 224; Jolly: Gent 225; Jolly: Gent 226; Jolly: Gent 227. Item #40220
Complete set of 12 issues with supplement. The September issue includes a poem, On Recollection, from Phillis Wheatley's forthcoming book to be published in London as well as a note by her owner, Wheatley, in the April issues. Much of the notes and Wheatley's article were aimed to convince readers that a slave could in fact be a writer and poet.
Phillis Wheatley, "(1753–05 December 1784), poet and cultivator of the epistolary writing style, was born in Gambia, Africa, probably along the fertile low lands of the Gambia River. She was enslaved as a child of seven or eight and sold in Boston to John and Susanna Wheatley on 11 July 1761... Wheatley’s final proposal for a volume of poems in September 1784 went virtually unnoticed. .. It is believed she died as a result of an infection from the birth. Wheatley’s end, like her beginning in America, was pitiable. Yet this genius of the pen left to the country a legacy of firsts: the first African American to publish a book, the mother of African-American letters, the first woman writer whose publication was urged and nurtured by a community of women, and the first American woman author who tried to earn a living by means of her writing." DNB.
"The Dying Negro: A Poetical Epistle from a Black to his intended wife," an abolitionist poem is also reviewed in the October issue
Other items include exploration such as: "Epitome of Commodore Byron s voyage round the world", "Epitome of Captain Wallis s voyage round the world", and two long articles on Cook's voyage around the world. And one of the first illustrations of the Kangaroo.
Plates include:: Curiosities of Herculaneum (First in a series): A Painting, subject, Theseus and the Minotaur; Figures: (1) The Giraffe, or Camelopardus, (2) The Chinese Antelope; Figures: (1) A Yoke for a Harrow, (2) A Cutting Roller, (3) A Contrivance for fastening Gates; Curiosities of Herculaneum (No. 2 in a series): A Painting, subject supposed to be Orestes discovered by Iphigenia; Two Quadrupeds: (1) The Tapir, (2) The Hippopotamus; The Oriole Bird, male and female; Curiosities of Herculaneum (No. 3 in a series): A Painting, subject, exposure of Telephus, the son of Hercules; Elevation and Geometrical Profile of the Abbey Church of St. Nicaise, at Rheims; Curiosities of Herculaneum (No. 4 in a series): A Painting, subject, Chiron teaching Achilles; Curiosities of Herculaneum (No. 5 in a series): A Painting, subject, the Judgment of Paris; A Brass Medal, representing a man asleep, three women standing by him; A General Plan of the Canals in England, already published in this work, with a Seal with the letters Y.-M.O.X.; Curiosities of Herculaneum (No. 6 in a series) Paintings: (1) A Bird yoked to a Car driven by a Grasshopper, (2) A Boat with oars, (3) A Satyr and Nymph at play, with [4] A Brass Medal, the Head of a Man, inscribed “Ponpeo”; Plan of Solway Moss, Cumberland; Figures: (1) Machine for a Fire Escape to be fixed on the outside of a house, (2) Seal of the Abbey Church of Shrewsbury, Shropshire; Elevation of the House of Confucius in Kew Gardens, Surrey; A Quadruped, the Kangaroo; A contrivance for locking wheels of carriages, by a pulley in the inside; Curiosities of Herculaneum (No. 7 in a series): A Painting, winged Children making wine; Figures: (1) A War Canoe of New Zealand, (2) Bread-fruit Tree of the South Sea Islands, (3) Obsidional Coin of Charles I. Newark, 1645, lozenge form; Sharp’s Rolling Carriages; View of the Remains of Glastonbury Abbey, Somersetshire; Figures: (1) Apparatus for rendering salt water fresh, (2) Carving in an Indian Pagoda, representing the Signs of the Zodiac; Remains of Cowling Castle, Kent; Simple Apparatus for making experiments on air; Curiosities of Herculaneum (No. 8 in a series): A Painting, two winged boys; Chart of the World 1 of 3 parts of sme are often published in 1774), exhibiting the track of several modern Navigators; General Directions for the Driver of the Rolling Wagon.
Pagination: [1], [2], [2], 3-48, [2], 51-104, [2], 107-156, [2], 159-204, [2], 207-256, [2], 259-304 {261 misnum as 126}, [2], 307-360, [2], 363-416, [2], 411-471 {dupe #s 411-416, skips 425-432}, [1], [2], 475-527, [1], [2], 531-583, [1], [2], 579-623 {dupe #s 579-583}, [1], 629-655 {skips #s 624-628}, [16] pp.
2 plates at end of Dec. & end of supp not recorded by Charles St. Barbe.
"Cave began the Gentleman's Magazine in January 1731, thus giving birth to one of the major publishing forms of the modern era, the magazine. It began modestly as a digest of London newspapers and periodicals for country customers (an orientation signaled in Cave's editorial pseudonym, Sylvanus Urban), but it went on to prosper and survive until 1922." (ODNB).
Price: $2,750.00